Advanced Placement (AP) U.S. History and other AP courses are under attack after several states took measures against the new curriculum for AP U.S. History put in effect last fall.
According to Tulsa World, conservative states like Oklahoma, Georgia, North Carolina and others are threatening to withhold funding for the newly adopted framework for the AP U.S. History course. Oklahoma passed a bill that cut funding for the AP U.S. History class Feb. 17. Georgia declared that unless The College Board, the nonprofit organization responsible for writing the new curriculum, revises the framework again, they will cut the AP program all together.
“This whole thing is a perception thing,” Adam Baker, professor of education said. “Some people think that American History should be taught with more perception. Looking at it from the winning side, America is the hero, is how we’ve taught it in the past. The new standards want us to have a global perspective; how do other countries view America?”
Dr. Kevin Klein, history professor and department chair, expressed his concern about what the new framework actually says and recommended looking into the new curriculum further.
“My concern as a teacher at Harding is does the new curriculum assess the students’ knowledge of American history or does the new curriculum simply assess the skill of the students’ test taking,” Klein said. “It’s more critical. It’s less supportive of historically understood concepts of American exceptionalism.”
On Feb. 17, Oklahoma also passed a bill that would replace the current AP U.S. History framework that is more “pro-American,” according to Policito, a political journalism organization. The bill will be written by the Oklahoma State Board of Education.
Several students have voiced their concern about the issue. Junior Christyn Simmons said she believes that AP classes prepared her for college level courses while earning college credit.
“Students need to be challenged at their own level, because people learn in different ways and at different speeds,” Simmons said. “It would be sad to let the more advanced students just easily slide by when they could benefit and learn more from an extra challenge when they are held to higher standards.”
Although AP classes were beneficial to some students, junior Andrea Warzecha said she thinks AP classes should be cut and dual credit should be used instead.
“I have done a generous amount of AP observations and I have seen disasters,” Warzecha said. “The teachers, a lot of the time, didn’t seem qualified to teach the subject and in at least four different schools there were student teachers teaching AP classes. If that says anything, it means that the qualifications and the material of AP courses weren’t very strong, at least in the districts I visited.”
